


More Valued Than Gold

by shinysuicune



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Body Horror Mentioned, Breaking and Entering, Canon-Typical Violence, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, I Tried, M/M, Mild Blood, Minor Injuries, Mutual Pining, Self-Reflection, Unresolved Sexual Tension, a tiny bit of gobblepot is also mentioned cause its my gotham otp and i couldnt help myself, ed misses oswald, i honestly dont know what time in the show this is meant to be set in oops, nygmobblepot is mentioned but its one sided, poor lucius always stuck dealing with ed's shit lmao, riddler licks some blood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-06 21:57:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20514140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinysuicune/pseuds/shinysuicune
Summary: Riddler breaks into Lucius' apartment asking for his help in finding something very important to him.





	More Valued Than Gold

**Author's Note:**

> I have only ever written for one pairing before so this was a big challenge to me, but I really love this pairing so much I had to try to give it a go. I really wanted to explore riddler/ed dynamic and also their relationship with lucius individually, I hope it is at least okay lol im winging it

Lucius twisted the doorknob quickly; shoes muddy from the nightly rainfall as he entered through the threshold, and closed the door behind him. The numbing air sent a chill through his body. He had forgotten his umbrella when he went in for work, and his coat was now soaked, leaking a cold mess onto the hardwood of the apartment. He took his shoes off, careful not to track any more mud through the apartment than he no doubt already had.

“You have a lovely apartment, Foxy. Impeccable style, I must say, expensive, but I suppose you did get a fat paycheck from Wayne Enterprises!”

Lucius jumped from the sound of the smooth familiar voice.

“Ed?”

He turned around, to see the shadow of a man, sitting slouched over in one of his favorite leather chairs.

“Guess again!”

“Riddler.”

“Ding Ding Ding! You are correct!” The man flicked on the side lamp and Lucius could see his face clearly now, smiling wide with that large distinct grin of his, “but you can still call me Ed for convenience sake. I heard you just found out!”

“About?”

Lucius was being cautious, as he always was around the man, but he never showed his fear.

“Me, of course." 

“Yes, Ed.” He emphasized that he had no interest in addressing Riddler by the title, “I heard you two were one from now on.”

“So I thought, but the universe has other plans right now.”

“Can I speak to the other Ed? The sane one.”

Riddler laughed in response, and now in the light, Lucius could see that his dark brown hair was damp and stuck to the skin of his face, and his clothes were wet as well, hugging his thin frame, meaning that he couldn’t have been here in the apartment for very long.

“There is no sane Ed. I’m just the stronger, smarter, more confident, better version of Ed.”

“I think I’d like the other Ed more.”

“Have you met him? By himself, I mean.” Lucius wasn’t quite sure if he had. The Ed he had known was always mentally compromised in some way, even when he wasn’t causing trouble. When he didn’t answer, Riddler simply smiled back at him, like a child who had been handed their favorite toy, “Do you remember the first time we met? You answered my riddle when no one else ever did. You had me shocked. We shared a connection. Do you remember? A diamond plate, a glowing grate, a place you never leave. Where am I?” 

“Home.” He answered again, “And why are you in my home, Ed?” 

“I have been...reflecting on some things lately. I wanted to see if the second smartest man in Gotham was up to a challenge.” 

“What kind of challenge?”

“I need you ... to help me find something.” 

“And what is this something?”

Ed looked nervous, tinkering with his glasses as they slid down his nose from his dewy skin. He was lucky he had such high cheekbones that helped to keep them in place.

“Are you okay, Ed?” He seemed tired, and worn down. Not as lively as usual, and certainly much paler. 

“I hate that.” He said in a way that made Lucius feel like he didn’t hate it at all. “I hate when you act so caring. When you always act like you’re worried about me. It’s annoying.”

“I worry about you all the time, Ed.” Lucius spoke softly, and honestly. Every interaction he had with the man always felt like he was calming and reassuring a wild animal. He didn’t want to make him anymore on edge than he always was. The fact that Ed wasn’t yelling at him like usual was a good start.

Ed seemed to be taken aback by his statement, and the honesty behind it seemed to warm his heart all the same. 

“You think about me?” His dark eyes lighting up with what Lucius believed to be hope.

“Hard not to think about the man who stuck a gun to my head more than once.” 

“There has only been one other man who has ever said they cared about me. The one who claimed to love me. The one I killed and dumped into the river.” 

Lucius doesn’t know if that was meant to sound like a threat or not, but it only served to make him feel uneasy.

“Killed? Penguin is still alive, so you can stop feeling guilty about it.”

“Guilty? Don’t make me laugh … and of course he is alive. Oswald is more weasel than Penguin. He always worms his way out of death somehow. That’s why he was King of Gotham for so long. But now I have destroyed his empire, and yet it is not enough!” Ed was getting heated. It was just Lucius’ luck that his kindness would backfire on him like this.

“You still want to kill him?” Lucius asked, trying desperately to understand. That’s all he truly wanted, to understand Ed, to get him the help he needed. He had multiple confrontations with the man, and yet it was only recently that he was informed of his dissociative identity disorder. He barely knew him, and yet Ed, or rather Riddler’s fondness of him made Lucius all the more intrigued to save him from himself. He had a brilliant mind, a terrible thing to see wasted on insanity.

“I wanted him to suffer. I wanted him to be completely and utterly alone, the way he made me feel when he murdered the woman I loved out of selfish envy and that’s where I made a miscalculation. Rare on my part.”

“And what was that?”

“Oswald will always have Jim Gordon, and it is I who will always have no one.” 

_Ah, so Ed believed, because Lucius cared for him, he would be a worthy ally?_ Ed once told him that he wasn't a good enough enemy, but maybe he could try to be… a friend? But he had always tried to be Ed’s friend, and the man didn’t trust easily.

“Are you asking me to be your Jim Gordon?”

“No. Jim Gordon is Oswald’s friend. I believed he was my friend once too, but he just pitied me like everybody else.” He suddenly pulled out a gun from his side and pointed it straight at Lucius, who had not moved a muscle since he shut the front door, “I want you to be something else entirely.” 

Lucius’ eyes widened slightly. He chastises himself for lowering his guard, even if for a second. Nygma was always unpredictable.

_Never boring_, he would say.

Lucius’s eyes traveled from the hand holding the gun, to the man’s arm, noticing clothe stained red and brown.

“You’re bleeding, Ed” His eyes floated to his torso, where he could see the ripped fabric, and bloody pale skin.

“You said it’s hard for you not to think about a man who points a gun at your head.” Riddler continued, ignoring him completely, “I do love the idea of that.”

“You’re injured. Will you let me look at it?” Lucius asked, hoping that he would just lower the gun already.

There was a moment of silence, and Ed’s hand was shaking, as he hissed and finally dropped his arms to his sides. Defeated, but never willing to admit it. The man was much too proud for that. 

“It’s not fatal, so there is really no rush … but I guess if you’re so desperate to get me out of my shirt, be my guest.” He waved the gun in the air dramatically, before deciding to sink back into the chair with a huff.

Lucius could never tell when Ed was joking or not, but he found it was best to ignore his comment. He walked over to the man, and kneeled to the side of the chair. Ed moved his body, so that Lucius could have a better look at the wound s he lifted the bottom of his shirt.

Ed was right, it wasn’t fatal at all, and probably looked much worse than it was. It looked like a knife wound, and Lucius wanted to question him about it, but Ed was still gripping that damn gun in his hand, and he didn’t want to make him anymore upset than he was earlier.

“I’m going to get my first aid kit. Will you be good, while I am gone?”

“Oh, Foxy. I am never good. You should know that by now.”

As Lucius fetched the kit, he could tell that Ed had snooped through his things, but he expected that much. Lucius had nothing to hide. Not here.

When he came back, and began to clean his wound, Ed seemed interested in watching his every move. 

“You’re such a capable man, Foxy. I am sure you are doing miracles at the GCPD.”

Lucius wonders if there was any part of Ed that missed his old job. He wonders if there was a part of him that hated Lucius for taking it from him.

“With your help, of course. I read the old forensic notes you left. You are a brilliant scientist, Dr. Nygma.”

“You know,” his voice was delicate, almost…appreciative, “In all the time I worked at the GCPD, I don’t think anyone ever called me Dr. Nygma. It was always just Ed.”

“You helped save a lot of lives.”

“I also helped end a lot of lives. Does it bother you to go to work in the lab every day, and you have to wash your hands, knowing it was the same sink where I melted Officer Dougherty’s severed limbs in acid after I stabbed him 10 times in the abdomen and chopped him into bits?” He spoke quickly, almost like it was something he didn’t want to dwell on either, “Kristen came in that day; she saw some of the limbs before I could melt them, I lied and told her it was someone who had been in a hacksaw accident.”

Lucius tried to avoid thinking about the … unsavory things that Ed had done. He had heard all about his kills, it was hard to ignore when every time he was brought up, Harvey would go on a rant about him being a “cop killer”. Even if the cop in question wasn't ... the best of people. Every cop in the city was dirty.

_Even Oswald’s precious Detective Gordon, _he could practically hear Ed say.

“Kristen…was she your first girlfriend?” He tried to change the subject, but accidentally may have dug himself into a deeper hole.

Ed’s face went sour instantly.

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I don’t even know why I mentioned that to you.”

Ed seemed to be quite lonely. Maybe, that is the reason he was opening up, and then being defensive after. Lucius suddenly realized that he was probably the first person since Oswald that Ed was willing to open up to, in one way or another. Ed must miss Oswald dearly, even if he didn’t want to admit it.

“Okay, then we won’t talk about it until you’re ready.”

“You’re already acting as my doctor, you don’t have to be my therapist too.” Ed rolled his eyes.

Lucius finished patching the wound, and before he could stand, Ed grabbed him by the wrist.

“More valued than gold, more precious than silk, pouring like wine, flowing like milk. What am I?”

Lucius looked at his own hand, dark skin glistening cardinal in the light. 

“Blood.”

Ed released his grasp; a small part of his blood making it’s way onto his own hand. He licked it from his palm, his eyes squinting in glee.

“I made that one easy for you.” He winked at him, flirtatious like he always was, and it had Lucius wondering how different the other Ed was from the one sitting in front of him.

“When you act like this, does the other Ed inside you kick you in the back of the head?”

Riddler laughed hard, genuinely amused by the question.

“Ed is so shy and sweet, he gets embarrassed by everything. It’s pretty cute, you would probably like it.”

Lucius had to stop himself from blushing from his own bashfulness at the statement. Instead, he decided to get to the bottom of whatever brought Ed here in the first place.

“What makes you think I’m going to help you find Oswald? Just because I’m friends with Jim?” 

“Oswald? I never said I was looking for Oswald. He’s probably dining in his fancy mansion or having parties at his nightclub like he usually is, I’m not trying to find him.”

“Oh? You said you needed help finding something. I just assumed it was something important.”

“No, I’m not looking for Oswald”, Ed didn’t argue with his statement about Oswald’s importance in his life. _Interesting, “_I’m ... I’m looking for Ed.”

“You’re right here, Ed. Don’t tell me there are three of you now.”

“No, no! Of course not! I just ... I have been me for a few days, and I can’t hear Ed in my head. It’s like he’s gone, which is odd…I’m used to taking the backseat most of the time, or us controlling the boat with two hands, if you will. Truth is, I am getting quite tired.” 

“So you break into my apartment to get me to help you?”

“You will help me, won’t you? You said you would probably prefer the other Ed anyway, right? You can’t just let The Riddler loose in Gotham, right? You’re a good man, Foxy. You’re the only one I can count on, so tell me, will the second smartest man in Gotham help me out?”

Lucius sighed. What did he get himself into?

“Yes, Ed. I will help you under one condition.”

“Oh dear!" 

“You know what I’m going to say?”

“You want me to get help. Okay, fine. As soon as Ed comes back to me, I will send us both to Arkham.”

“Really?”

“Sure. I mean, I will just escape again, of course. So, no big deal.”

Riddler smiled ear to ear, a rare grin only reserved for him.

Lucius suddenly felt very much like he had made an unfair deal with the devil.

**Author's Note:**

> foxma RIGHTS !!!!
> 
> follow me on twitter if you want: @iluvchrollo


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